Teacher Preparation Notes for Using Blood Tests to Identify Babies and Criminals

by Dr. Jennifer Doherty and Dr. Ingrid Waldron, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 20121

Teaching Points
There are four blood types in the ABO system: A, B, AB, and O. These blood types refer
to the presence or absence of two different versions of a carbohydrate molecule (A and
B) on the surface of red blood cells.
Both A and B are antigens which stimulate the formation of antibodies. Anti-A antibodies
react specifically with A antigens on the surface of red blood cells, and anti-B antibodies
react specifically with B antigens.
Antibodies are special proteins that travel in the blood, react with antigens, and help our
bodies to destroy viruses or bacteria that have infected our bodies.
Normally, your body does not make antibodies against antigens which are part of your
own body. If you have Type A blood, you have A antigens on the surface of your red
blood cells and anti-B antibodies, but not anti-A antibodies, in your blood plasma. Etc.
A blood transfusion can harm a person if the donated red blood cells have antigens that
react with antibodies in the person's blood. Only specific matching blood types can be
safely used for a blood transfusion.
There are three alleles of the blood type gene: IA results in the production of the A
antigen, IB results in the production of the B antigen, andidoes not result in the production
of either antigen. The IAand IB alleles are dominant relative to the recessivei allele. The
IAand IB alleles are codominant. As a result, a person who has the IAIA or IA i genotype
will have Type A blood, a person who has the IAIB genotype will have Type AB blood,
etc..
Equipment and Supplies:
Synthetic blood of all four blood types (A, B, AB, and O)
Synthetic A and B anti-serum
Drop-controlled bottles or small bottles with droppers or pipets(8 per class)
Microscope slides or plates for mixing blood and antibodies (6 per group)
Toothpicks for mixing blood and anti-serum on plates (6 per group)
Containers such as 20oz.soda or water bottle to use as a trash so the students can throw away
their disposables immediately after use to avoid contamination (1 per group)
All of the simulated blood kits listed below containa drop bottle of each of the four types of
blood, at least two types of anti-sera (A and B), mixing plates (usually enough for 5-6 groups to
work at once), and toothpicks. We have used the Carolina and NeoSci kits. The Carolina B
reaction is easier to see than the NeoSci B reaction but you get about 5mL of each blood and
anti-sera with the Carolina kit and 30mL of each with the NeoSci kit.
Website
Catalog Number Description
Price
ABO-Rh Blood Typing with
$36.95
www.carolina.com 70-0101
Synthetic Blood Kit
70-0102
Refill
$19.95
E2-20-2953
The Frequency of Blood Types
$43.95
www.neosci.com
Using Neo/BLOOD
E2-20-2955
Refill
$21.95
Simulated ABO Blood Typing Lab
$31.90
www.wardsci.com 36 V 0022
Activity
36 V 0035
Refill
$19.85
1

These Teacher Preparation Notes, the related Student Handout, and multiple additional activities are available at
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron, with additional activities available at http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/bioactivities.

If you have insufficient budget for these kits, you can adapt the instructions to use food coloring,
milk, vinegar and water provided on pages 1-3 of "Teachers Talking Science Blood Typing,
available at http://www.talkingscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/tts-bloodtyping.pdf.
However, you should be aware that you will have to designate different antisera for each sample
in order to get the desired results.
Preparation for Crime Investigation
As each kit above only comes with 6 drop controlled bottles (2 for anti-sera and 4 for blood) if
you only purchased one kit you need to come up with 2 more drop bottles or containers with
pipets so you can have a labeled bottle for each suspect (an easy way to do this is tobuy a full kit
and a refill).
Before class you should label a bottle for each of the blood samples the students must analyze.
The following chart illustrates one possible assignment of blood types to each name.If you teach
multiple lab sections, you can vary the blood type in the sample from the shower door and/or
from the individuals involved, in order to maintain some suspense and variety. To minimize the
ambiguity of interpretation, the blood type on the shower door should match the blood type of
only one of the potential culprits and should not match the victim's blood type. One possibility is
as follows.
Suspects
Shamari Davis Victim
Daleesha JonesCo-worker
Harvey WillisJanitor
Mike ReedClient
Steve OHareBoss
Blood on shower door

Blood type (A, B, AB, O)

B
A
B
O
AB
AB

During class you can either 1) pass around a box containing each of the 8 bottles to each groups
table as they reach the hands-on portion of the activity or 2) set up a station somewhere in your
classroom where the students can come test their blood. After the initial dropping of blood and
anti-sera onto plates it takes students a while to mix and read the reactions, so option 1 may be
better if you have a large class.
Background for Discussion of Blood Types and Skin Color
For the ABO blood group:
IA codes for an enzyme that plays a crucial role in synthesizing glycoproteins and
glycolipids with the Type A carbohydrate molecules; these glycoproteins and glycolipids
are located in the cell membrane of red blood cells.
IB codes for an enzyme that plays a crucial role in synthesizing glycoproteins and
glycolipids with the Type B carbohydrate molecules.
i codes for an inactive enzyme.
The function of these carbohydrate molecules is unknown. People who have neither Type A nor
Type B carbohydrates (blood type O) are as healthy as people who have these carbohydrates.
Different blood types are correlated with certain illnesses and vary in frequency in different
ethnic groups, but the reasons are unknown.
The determination of blood type is more complex than the ABO blood types discussed in this
activity. For additional information on blood types and transfusions see:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_1_4X_Blood_Transfusion.asp?sitearea=ETO
2

http://www.peacehealth.org/kbase/topic/medtest/hw3681/descrip.htm
http://anthro.palomar.edu/blood/ABO_system.htm
Of course, modern methods for identifying an individual are much more sophisticated than
simply testing blood type, typically using analysis of DNA.
Skin color is influenced by multiple genes. One of the most important is the MC1R gene which
codes for the melanocortin receptor; when alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone binds to
normal melanocortin receptor this stimulates melanocytes to produce melanin. More than 80
alleles of the MC1R gene have been identified, resulting in various degrees of reduced function
and correspondingly varied skin colors. Heterozygotes have intermediate skin color, between the
lighter and darker homozygotes (called incomplete dominance or a dosage effect). The multiple
alleles and the effects of incomplete dominance result in multiple different phenotypes for skin
color. (Additional information is available at ghr.nlm.nih.gov/genes/MC1R.) Of course, skin
color is also influenced by environmental factors, particularly variation in amount of sun
exposure.
Possible Alternative and Extension
The same twin scenario is included as a discussion/worksheet activity entitled "Were the babies
switched?" in "Soap Opera Genetics-- Genetics to Resolve Family Dilemmas and Arguments ",
available athttp://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/bioactivities/SoapOperaGenetics. This
discussion/worksheet activity includes explanations and questions concerning both the
inheritance of blood types (including the concept of codominance) and skin color (including the
concept of incomplete dominance). The section on skin color and incomplete dominance can be
substituted for question 4 on page 5 of the Student Handout for this hands-on activity.